Now with the first round of the playoffs halfway through for some, and pretty much over for others, I can’t help but day dream about what teams will look like in 2 months time once the draft hits and free agency opens up. Sure there are ‘mock drafts’ out there and rumors galore, but truth is, true fans of their teams know better than to take the media bait and try their own stab at being the GM of their favorite teams. It’s not exactly fantasy basketball I’m talking about, which I have zero interest in, but more of thinking up realistic moves that would push a team that much closer to a banner next season or the next. For some it’s full blown explosions to a team to try to start over and see if the new pieces fit, how they react to the coach and how they handle the proven teams like San Antonio, LA, OKC and the rolling nightmare in Miami.

This season, we’ve seen a surprise from several teams that decided to ‘blow it up’ and attempt to contend. The Clippers are a prime example of this. They traded away most of their team for CP3 and then added more pieces to the puzzle with Caron Butler and Kenyon Martin. This was very much a Boston Celtics ’07 move when they traded away half their team for KG and picked up Jesus Shuttlesworth, Sam Cassell and other vets. It worked for them, but they also had a full summer training camp. Had the Clipps had that, along with several other newly constructed teams, this playoff matchup could look much different.

Injuries are another hot topic. I fully believe the Timberwolves would have made a deep run in the playoffs if Ricky Rubio wouldn’t have gone down early with a season ending injury. Same goes with the Magic, Bulls and Knicks. Injuries happen, on and off the court, but this compact schedule of cramming 66 games into 4 months was a disaster waiting to happen. Teams like San Antonio and Utah, though, proved that smart drafting and trading to build a solid bench is the way to go when a starter or 2 goes down clutching their knee or shoulder. Boston somehow kept going even with a weaker than others bench. They were dropping as fast as the Net’s starting lineup and still managed to come out strong into the playoffs.

It’s still a bit early for solid Finals matchup predictions but it’s looking a lot like Memphis or OKC could be facing Miami or Boston. Next season is going to be very fun to watch with half-injured superstars heading out of the playoffs and into the Olympics and back to rest a few weeks before starting training camp exhausted. To me, this is Miami’s last chance to win it all. With 3 of their stars heading to London this summer, they are going to be frazzled and worn out by the time next season starts. You can count them out. This is probably the best thing for teams like Minnesota, Chicago, Boston and whoever gets D12 this summer who will have the offseason to rest their injured and not lose them to more challenging and tiring games overseas. These teams will come in hungry, clicking and ready to kick the wounded and keep them down. Expect the Rockets to make a surprising push too. They are a foreign center named D-Mo and an all-star point guard in the making away from a deep run next season.

As of right now, my team of choice to dissect will be my favorite of course, the Boston Celtics.

Beantown would be smart in extending Pierce’s contract a 3rd time and stretching it over the next 3 seasons. This will give just a little extra cap room for this summer and the next to load up the bench. Hopefully Danny will do a better job this offseason than next. HOPEFULLY Danny will be in Portland or at home and Larry Bird will be grabbing up free agents like donuts.

Resigning KG and Jesus to smaller contracts, but not minimum ones, would be ideal for topping off their careers and mentoring the next generation in Boston. Bringing back Bass, Pietrus, Steimsma and starting Bradley are also musts for next season. Picking up Chris Kaman could be just what they need at the 5 with Steimroller spelling him. Jeff Green most likely will be back in a Celtics jersey and the Purdue rookies will be that much better next season after a full training camp and summer camp. The key will be getting that starting 5 like Kaman even Better Lopez from Brooklyn, and choosing wisely in the draft with their 4 picks, 2 of which are in the middle of the 1st round. This team will be a great blend of youth and experienced vets, much like the 2008 championship team. I fully expect them to be in the finals next year unless Chicago can find a way to solidify their frontcourt issues and starting 2 spot this summer. Either way, I’d welcome a Chi-Town/Beantown Semi-Finals any day next season with OKC waiting on the other side of the court.

I tip my hat to basketball and am thankful there’s at least one sport out there I can still connect with.

Hello world, Its been a hot minute since I’ve written so might as well give it a whirl. Spaz, Hat-Girl , and dynamic Duo I’ve started working out… I will wait for you to stop laughing and compose yourself… but it is true, I have joined and attend a gym everyday. I can’t go into a place and not get pissed off by people it’s a curse what can I say, so I’ve made enemies with some of the other patrons (in my head). First off is Spaz, Spaz is a guy that will show up about 20 to 30 minutes after I do, he will walk on the treadmil for 2 minutes, go to the machines, pick one and do a set of 3 get up, go to the crunch machine do 4 of those and walk somewhere else. One day I felt he was following me, if I got on an arm machine he was right next to me, or hovering and waiting for me to get off of it so that he could snatch it up and change all of my settings….I mean I couldn’t wipe the sweat off of it he had jumped on the machine and changed all the weight and lifted the chair. As if that wasn’t bad enough the guy wears an awful smelling cologne (who wears cologne to the gym????) it is so bad that when he walks by you can’t even breath because his cologne engulfs you like you are drowning! Secondly we have Hat-Girl Hat girl is very fit, she is there everyday, has a guy that comes and trains her and everything. She is curtious and pretty much sticks to herself, but why would This person piss me off to get put on this blog entry…I will tell you why!! She parks in a NO PARKING zone…let me paint you a picture there are regular parking spaces from the street to the handicap spots, then there is a handicap spot and a marked off space in front of that for NO PARKING this is where she parks…. Sister (me talking to her) you are at a GYM you will be ok if you have to take 5 or 6 extra steps in order to make it to the front door. it has stressed me out so much I’ve considered leaving a note on her car, reporting her to the gym, or even getting her shit towed…ugh what makes her so freaking special she can park there? Finally the Dynamic Duo When I started going to the gym I found 1 tredmil I would get on in the morning, others would do the same, if you are a “regular” you pick a tredmil and stay there. Well there is a couple that started to attend the gym and the lady was on my tredmil… this is fine, you don’t know the protocal, I won’t make a scene I will just find a different machine and get into a routine with this machine. Fast forward to the next morning they are now on the machine I was on yesterday!! To this day I can’t get in a tredmil groove because these 2 are EVERYWHERE. I feel like one day these people will just stop coming, because I don’t think I can get over such stupidity and ignorance— I mean people should stop doing their New Years resolutions by now right??

1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.

Given definition 2, I’d say I definitely discriminate coffee. Just sayin’. People discriminate on just about everything each day, but they don’t realize it, and surely don’t see it as a link to racism unless pointed out. The WHITE verses BLACK civil war that has been brewing, especially in the last year, has had me really curious about not only what the outcome will be, but who has been steering the ship. The answer on the boat captain isn’t exactly an easy answer, unfortunately. Sure it’s easy to say, well it wasn’t like this before we elected a half-black president, but in reality it was, and has been brewing for decades. Though President Obama becoming recently unpopular and facing an unforeseeable golden ticket to a second term has created a more noticeable rift in the “let’s all hold hands after 9/11” mentality, I still can’t put the blame all on him. We will get to this point later.

In a nutshell, I’m amused by how much the media and entertainment masterminds focus so hard on ‘equal rights’ and damning ‘white America’, yet at the same time market mostly to whites. Think about it, very few commercials or popular movies/tv shows are minority friendly. McDonalds and Popeye’s Chicken have been the leaders at bringing in more diversity to their advertising, but very few have followed. There are now more minority characters in cartoons, tv shows and movies than before but is it equal enough for someone not to feel the need to discriminate against or cry racism? No. There will not be, either. Channels like BET, primarily focused on Black entertainment, Black award shows, Black pageants, black scholarships and even the black congressional congress are not correcting this problem, they are simply alienating a race. Should there be a Black National Football League? No because there is a majority of black players in the NFL already. So should there be a White National Football League then to counterbalance the majority of blacks in the NFL? Only if the mindset of alienating a race is logical, and it’s not. People of all races come together and root on multicultural teams in all professional sports. Even golf, a predominately white sport. Tiger Woods, before he got caught being a naughty boy, was a hero and still is to so many races that are fans of golf.

So why, when it comes to politics, are people that supported our president 3 years ago suddenly running like Swamp Thing is chasing them down and no longer rooting him on in multicultural cheer? One answer, disappointment. Disappointment for what ‘should’ have been an amazing accomplishment for blacks and whites in our amazing nation. The first half-black/half-white American president. This should have been as popular as Tiger Woods in golf, correct? Well what happened to Tiger once everyone’s eyes were opened to what was going on behind the scenes? Disappointment. It was an O.J. Simpson-lite situation. When a hero becomes human, it never ends well. Just look at Superman II, but at least there, he became a super hero once again and saved the day. Is Tiger Woods capable of this? Yes. He can put the past behind him and go out on the golf course and jam on the one, fixing his legacy. So can our president do the same thing? He should be able to, but the reality is, he’s showing everyone he’s not going to. I’ll touch on this in a minute.

This is the reason the Republicans are so against anything he says. I don’t agree with the Republicans refusal to be more ‘agreeable’ to get some things moving for our country, but in essence I look at it like this. If your child is bad, you punish them. And any adult knows that sometimes, punishing your child also punishes yourself. Take a planned vacation for example. If your kid does something really bad before the vacation, they should be punished. And sometimes, if it’s bad enough, that means the vacation should be canceled to prove a point to the child that they screwed up and have to learn. You don’t punish your kid for doing bad from the television but still let them have video games and computer time, do you? Well I see the Republicans taking the same thought process here. Unless they can get the president and the Senate to agree to fixing the things that are crippling America, then they are completely punishing him until his eyes are opened. The same thing happened to Bush his last 2 years.

Back to my earlier point about President Obama not showing everyone he’s willing to swallow pride, set his agenda aside and do for the country’s good and not his own. Recently he’s come to the realization that it’s not going to be a “follow the yellow brick road” year ahead for him towards a reelection. Now he’s recently resorted to the lowest point in his presidency. Campaigning. Making empty promises to ensure votes. How quickly some of this nation forgot how heavily he ran on job creation and instead focused solely on healthcare. Now he’s back to promising jobs again, but will America take the medicine? It’s not looking like it from what early polling shows, though we are still a year away from the 2012 election. I think America is realizing the man believes more in his reelection than in job creation. As he campaigns his ‘jobs bill/reelection’ tour he is doing more to harm American than help by recently creating more civil warfare. How dare I? Let me ‘splain, Lucy.

His recent speech to rile up black voters was worded a bit extreme in my point of view. Here’s another take on the speech for contrast. What he’s doing here is creating more of a separation of races. Basically saying, vote for whatever I say because I’m not half-white and half-black, I’m black, and you should start marching for whatever I say. Now when I think of marching for policy, I think of Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous non-violent marches that brought about a very long overdue and important change to our society in America. Equal rights for all that legally live in America. I won’t get into that, but instead of more branching I will finish with this. President Obama, don’t you dare tell the black community to vote for you because it’s the right thing to do. If you have to sink this low, to call out an entire race to bail you out, then at least have the balls to ask them to support you IF they agree with what you are doing to America, and plan to continue doing IF reelected. You don’t see Herman Cain or Ron Paul doing this in order to get a leg up in the race now do you?

Today, an article from Fox News tells us that a boy in Fort Worth was suspended from school for two days because he told a classmate that he believes homosexuality is wrong. Wow. This is the fascist/authoritarian Leftist mindset of today. If one doesn’t prescribe to the ideology of the Left, he is a heretic. He deserves to be punished; punished for having an opinion differing from that of cultural Marxists and anti-traditionalists.

Notice, the story doesn’t say that the boy said anything disparaging about homosexuals, just that in his opinion, he thinks it’s wrong.

Imagine if a student were to say “heterosexuality is wrong”. He would not be punished. He would probably be asked to keynote the graduation ceremony. This is what the Left continues to do today; punish, silence, pounce on anyone with whom they disagree labeling them a bigot, racist, homophobe, etc.

Can you imagine being suspended for holding an opinion that a vast majority of the world holds as well? As I’ve previously stated: the Left promulgates the lie stating they are the most open-minded people, when in fact, they are the least.

UPDATE: The school has now revoked the suspension. I guess they figured they don’t want to be seen as fascist bigoted intolerant assholes they accuse people like me of being.

I have a friend named Markus Ponder. I felt it necessary to mention him because of his uncanny resemblance to the actor Matt Damon. It’s amazing actually, how much he looks just like him. Sometimes I feel bad since I’m sure he’d rather a much more awesome actor to have a likeness to, but either way, he’s Matt Damon in my book.

My friend Markus Ponder has the largest calves I’ve ever seen on a 3 foot 2 man. It’s like two leprechaun skulls sealed up tight in an albino seals’ belly and taped on below his knees.

My friend Markus Ponder has the best laugh I’ve ever heard from a man. It’s always the same, never just a chuckle, but a hearty gut buster that sizzles like a 1910 Model T Ford’s car horn, if there is such a vehicle.

Just a bit of random information that will save you money, but bust your bladder.

We are all familiar with Sonic’s 44 oz Route 44 (is it “root”, or “rouwt”, I don’t know). We all love Sonic ice too. It’s like, it’s like, like, I don’t know. Ooh, like the feeling of droppin’ a deuce after walking 200 yards, with each step enticing that prairie dog to peak out a little more until it’s about to fall out of it’s cave when you plop yourself on the cold seat of the crapper. Yeah, that’s how good, refreshing and satisfying Sonic ice is.

Anyway. . . I did an experiment. I had a cup of Route 44 Sonic ice and a 20 oz bottled Coke. I poured the 20 oz Coke into the “44 oz” drink, only to find that with all that ice, it doesn’t even hold 20 oz of Coke. What a gimmick!

So, my point is, if you don’t know, to ask for “easy ice” when you get a Sonic drink. It’s still plenty of ice, and you get a lot more for your money.